State Files New Charges In Sex Case

The Lakeview Middle Band Director, Accused Of Molesting 4 Boys, Says He Will Be Proven Innocent.

April 20, 1993|By Robert Perez, of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — Additional charges were filed Monday against a suspended Lakeview Middle School band director accused of molesting four boys over the past several years.

Stephen Paterson now faces three more counts of lewd and lascivious assault and four of engaging in a sexual act with a child by a person in custodial authority, assistant state attorney Stewart Stone said.

Paterson, 37, who already faced 35 other counts, will have to turn himself in at the Seminole County jail when an arrest warrant is issued later this week, Stone said.

Meanwhile, a petition is being circulated calling on Gov. Lawton Chiles to revoke Paterson's teaching certificate.

Four former Lakeview students have accused Paterson of fondling them and performing oral sex on them between 1989 and 1992. Three boys came forward in February and another spoke up later, Stone said.

Paterson has insisted he is innocent, and his attorney, J. Cheney Mason, has said he will show there is no corroborating evidence to confirm the boys' stories.

Paterson declined to comment on the additional charges Monday, but did express frustration in not being able to defend himself.

''I'll just have to go to a hearing or court to prove my innocence,'' he said.

The district investigated Paterson in 1991 after he played a comedy record containing profanity and racial slurs for students, and for using sexually explicit language in front of students. He was suspended for five days.

That investigation involved at least one of the four boys now making accusations of criminal charges. That boy's father said he is angry and frustrated the district didn't remove Paterson from the classroom at that time.

What's more, he said, no one at the school district told him about the 1991 investigation.

''I believe all this could have been preventable if we had been properly informed,'' the parent said. ''They never said, 'We're conducting an investigation involving your son.' ''

The Seminole District School Board has suspended Paterson without pay pending a hearing on district administrators' recommendation that he be fired. No date has been set.

Paterson says he won't go back to teaching because ''any kid can say anything any time,'' he said. ''I'm interested in making money now. I want to go out and exercise my potential. I taught for 10 years, and now I want to make some money.''

The petition, being circulated by a Lakeview parent, might sway public opinion, but it will have little effect legally.

Karen Wilde, a spokeswoman for the Education Practices Commission in Tallahassee, said the teaching certificate can be revoked only after due process.

The state Department of Education cannot confirm or deny that it is investigating Paterson.